Agenda item

To receive a discussion paper on Employee Engagement in a Hybrid Working Environment.

RESOLVED: That the Committee commented on and noted the Discussion Paper on Employee Engagement in a Hybrid Working Environment.

Audio Recording – 24 minutes 24 seconds

The HR Service Manager presented the Discussion Paper entitled ‘Employee Engagement in a Hybrid Working environment’ and advised that:

·       Employee Engagement was the emotional and professional connection employees feel towards their organisation, colleagues and work.

·       High engagement leads to increased; job satisfaction, performance and retention and reflected the overall positive employee experience.

·       Hybrid working can make informal, coincidental engagement less likely, managers need to work with their teams to engage by other means, and to conduct wellbeing check ins.

·       SCF meetings, Inclusion Groups meetings and staff briefings now took place as hybrid meetings, ensuring that everybody can take part.

·       Employees can take part in social events outside of work, the chats functions on teams, and reverse mentoring which can be online or in person.

·       The key elements of engagement were, leadership, management integrity, employee voice and visible leadership that communicated a vision for the future.

·       These occurred through, staff briefings, SCF, personal development days, having one to one and team meetings so that employees had the opportunity to be heard and listened to.

·       This occurred by ensuring the support and development of effective Managers who understood and maintained the values of the Council.

·       This can be achieved by using the regular performance review (RPR) framework for discussions on values and by recognising employee values through the staff recognition awards, and the provision of opportunities such as ‘ask Anthony’ and the staff survey.

·       Now that technology supported hybrid working as part of flexible working there was a need to support engagement in the hybrid environment.

·       The Comms Department were working on developing SharePoint and a staff survey was planned to balance face to face and virtual contact, depending on the employee and circumstances.

The following Members asked questions:

·       Councillor Elizabeth Dennis

·       Councillor Claire Strong

·       Councillor Tom Plater

In response to questions, the HR Service Manager advised that:

·       Engagement can be measured in output rather than presentism whether at home or in the office, and Managers reviewed this through the RPRs.

·       Managers are encouraged to have regular check ins, team meetings and have consideration for people who may live alone.

·       An engagement survey would be used to measure employee responses, and more detailed information would be available through SharePoint.

·       HR can review how many employees have read Insight and attended the staff briefings, which would help to develop a bigger picture of the engagement of employees.  

·       The Teams chats facility worked well for quick question and answer sessions and working together helped with coincidental chats.

·       Some teams had weekly catch-up session and spent time together virtually as well as face to face.

·       Employees can join Teams groups that, allowed groups of people to work and communicate together either online or via messages.

·       IT had been running drop-in sessions on the better use of technology to increase communication and engagement.

·       There was a difference between hybrid working and virtual working, and employees often arranged to work in the office with their peers.

·       Team members and Managers of new staff are encouraged to be more available and to have face to face communication.

·       Not every employee enjoyed or wished to take part in social functions, but these can happen on Teams or were advertised on the work intranet.

The SCF Representative stated that:

·       They attended the office once a week on different days to interact with more colleagues.

·       They were part of several Teams groups with a lot of different departments and felt that there was still active engagement.

·       They had been a buddy for 3 new employees, meeting with them once a week, introducing them to other people and assisting their needs.

In response to questions, the Managing Director advised that:

·       There were lots of digital platforms and it was sometimes challenging to decide which one to use or check, from Teams, WhatsApp to text messenger.

·       SharePoint would be launching soon and would incorporate ‘Yammer’ an internal social media page promoting activities.

·       Direction had been sought from employees as to which platform should be used and when, as different employees preferred different media types to respond to queries and were often unsure of which to use.

Councillor Elizabeth Dennis advised that Members communicated using the Portal, and by emails, it would be a good idea to encourage Members to use Teams for quick communications with Officers.

Councillor Tom Plater stated that he had used Teams with Committee Services and that if Officers were happy to receive communication in this way, then it should be promoted to Members.

Councillor Elizabeth Dennis suggested that relevant Officers were contacted regarding Members using Teams, after which an update for Members should be sent by email and published in MIS encouraging everyone to communicate effectively and appropriately.

RESOLVED: That the Committee commented on and noted the Discussion Paper on Employee Engagement in a Hybrid Working Environment.